“Find your own niche and be the master”

Young journalists should find their voice and master social media to express it reports Femi Asu, 28, a Commonwealth Correspondent from Lagos in Nigeria. He recounts an inspiring session where seasoned journalists inspire young colleagues to create unique works.

Young journalists have been enjoined to find their niche and maximise the benefits of the social media to make a huge success of their journalism career.

The charge was the conclusion made by Lekan Otufodunrin, online Editor at The Nation, a Nigerian newspaper and Ruona Agbroko-Meyer, a United Kingdom-based Nigerian journalist and trainer, at a training session on social media usage for news gathering and writing for the web held in Lagos, Nigeria.

Agbroko-Meyer, lead facilitator for the training, said young journalists have a comparative advantage over the older generation of journalists with the new media such as Twitter and Facebook at their disposal.

“You have an added advantage. You have Twitter from which you can gather news and Facebook which can be used to generate comments,” she said.

Speaking on the need for young journalists to distinguish themselves, she said “find your own niche and be the master. Don’t do what everybody is doing. As a young journalist, you can carve a niche for yourself. Please don’t copy and paste. If you don’t have anything to add to the debate, don’t write.”

Continuing, she said Nigeria is one of the interesting places you can use your brain to create something unique, adding that some people started Castle and City People magazines, both of which are making waves in the country.

Corroborating her viewpoint, Otufodunrin told the young journalists not to always go with the popular in their quest for popularity.

“You can’t go too far by doing what everybody is doing. You don’t have to do the popular thing to be popular. You need to find your niche and strive towards being an expert.”

He charged young journalists not to be afraid of starting small, as it is important in carving a niche for themselves.

Otufodunrin is an adjunct Mass Communication lecturer at University of Lagos, Nigeria; Fellow of Thomson Foundation, Cardiff, U.K; Fellow, Poynter Institute (School for Journalists) , Florida, USA and President of Journalists for Christ, Nigeria.

Agbroko-Meyer is a former reporter/columnist with Nigerian daily This Day, senior reporter with Next Newspaper and a winner of the 2010 Future Awards’ Nigeria’s Young Journalist and Thomson Reuters’ FitzGerald Prize for a Young African Journalist (January 2010).

At the training organised by Media Career Nigeria, participants were taught how to use Twitter, Google Alerts, and how to write news for the web, among others.

Trained as an accountant, I live and breathe writing and journalism. I am an expert author with EzineArticles.com; an editorial consultant, inspirational speaker, youth empowerment advocate, social entrepreneur, blogger and publisher at http://www.standoutandreign.com

I am deeply passionate about excellence, committed to continuous self-improvement and adding value to others, helping them find their passion.

I am a unique, never-to-be-repeated miracle of God; an evolving work-in-progress going places to manifest the glory of the Maker!

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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commonwealth Youth Programme. Articles are published in a spirit of dialogue, respect and understanding. If you disagree, why not submit a response?

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